Who am I?

I’m Caroline VanSickle, and I’m a biological anthropologist who studies human evolution. I explore what the skeletal anatomy of ancient human relatives can tell us about behavior in the past and the evolutionary course of our species. I am particularly interested in what we can learn about the role of women in human evolution. My research has taken me to museums and universities in England, Spain, Croatia, Germany, France, Israel, and South Africa to look at original fossil materials. My current work explores the causes of variation in pelvic anatomy in modern humans as a way to interpret pelvic fossils of ancient hominins. I have also studied how Neandertal women gave birth and the pelvic anatomy of Homo naledi. Previously, I was the first-ever Wittig Postdoctoral Fellow in Feminist Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I practiced applying a feminist lens to my research on human evolution. Currently I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College, where I teach courses on biological anthropology.